Women in ChristianityBiblical period and early Christian Church

Time Line from Mary Pat Fisher’s Women and Religion Ch 7Luke’s Gospel has Jesus’s story begin with Mary and the Annunciation that she would have a child.

Boticelli’s Annunciation

The birth of Jesus doesn’t happen unless Mary agrees to it:

Mary gives her consent to become the mother of Jesus: “Be it done unto me according to your word”

Interpretation: Mary as the new Eve. Her ‘yes’ to God’s will negates Eve’s ‘no’ .

See Luke 1: 26

Da Vinci’s Annunciation

Mary of Magdela

• The Empty Tomb, resurrection appearances • John 20

Mary at the wedding at Cana Luke 2

“Son, behold your Mother. Mother, behold your Son.”

2 Mary’s at the Cross

The Woman Caught in Adultery– John 8

New Testament

• The Gospelsby the 4 evangelists: Matthew, Mark,

Luke & John

Acts of the Apostles

Epistles (23 letters, most by Paul)

Revelation

The Samaritan Woman John 4: 1-29

• In Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, she is known as Photine ( φως,the luminous one). There is an extensive extra-biblical tradition related to her, in which she is known as Saint Photine or Photini/Photina (of Samaria), and regarded as a Christian martyr.

Women Martyrs during the Roman Persecutions

• Saints Perpetua and Felicity (martyred in 203) were Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua was a 22-year old married noblewoman and a nursing mother. Her co-martyr Felicity, an expectant mother, was her slave. They suffered together at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa, during the reign of Septimius Severus. The died in the Roman arena killed by wild animals for entertainment. Perpetua’s account of her time in prison and her visions can be found in the optional readings in Serinity Young’s Anthology.

Roman authorities did not intentionally seek out Christians, but when people were accused of being Christians they would be forced to either curse Jesus and make an offering to Roman gods, or be executed

Women Martyrs during the Roman Persecutions

• Famous female martyrs : Blandina (slave, arena), Agnus (affluent, burned), Cecilia (musician, noblewoman by sword), Lucy (affluent, gave away wealth, eyes)

Emperors with major persecutions: 200 A.D. Septimius Severus, 300 A.D. Diocletian.Persecutions were ended in 313 AD by Constantine in his Edict of Milan

• The growth of Christianity in the first 2 centuries had a gender bias favoring women . This has 3 roots: #1: pagan female infanticide

• Roman pagans often chose whether to keep a child or let it die by exposure. Babies with birth defect and girls were disproportionately killed at birth.

• Example: letter of Roman Hilarion to his wife Alis in the year 1 BC:• This led to there being a a significant shortage of womenamong pagan men when looking to marry.

#2: Christian prohibition of abortion.

#3: Women were attracted to Christianity at much higher rate than men.• The net effect was that many pagan men married Christian women who raised

children to be Christians and often brought their husbands into Christianity as well.

Women and the growth of early Christianity

Why did women converted at a much higher rate than men in the first two centuries A.D.?

• Religious equality: women and men had the same spiritual value and path to heaven, treated same

at Eucharist, had leadership roles.• Protection of their own female children from infanticide.• Lower female mortality because of - communal charity (health care)- older marriage age

See Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity, Ch 5, “The Role Women in Christian Growth”

Some Christian vocabulary…

• Apocrypha:Christian books not considered canonical by

certain churches or denominations.• The Vulgate: the Latin version of the Bible.• “Sola scriptura” Martin Luther’s phrase “scripture only”,

i.e. the Bible alone is the sole authority on all matters of faith.

Carl Jung, Psychology and Western Religion, saw 2 missing archetypes in Christian view of God as Trinity

* Jung argued that in many world myths, humanity’s higher nature has been represented by a circle divided into four quadrants. • Jung presents two possibilities for filling in the fourth quadrant of the Trinity: the feminine (represented by the Virgin Mary) and the base instinct (represented by Satan). They supply a missing opposition within the images of the divine.